Rick: Mitt is 'compromised'

LINCOLN PARK, Mich. — Rick Santorum outlined here in a speech tonightwhat would be his biggest priorities for his first 100 days in office, if elected president.

But sprinkled generously throughout his speech were thinly veiled attacks on Mitt Romney, with whom he is in a tight race to win Tuesday’s Michigan primary.

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The undercurrent of the hourlong speech — billed as a major policy address — was hard to miss: Santorum is a “conviction conservative” while Romney is “inconsistent” in his positions.

“Again, I can come at it as a principled position. On Obamacare, on Dodd-Frank and the Wall Street bailouts, I’ve been for private sector health care, I’ve been for no bailouts and believing in capital markets, that’s been my philosophy,” Santorum said.

The zinger: “I’ve been a conviction conservative who’s stood for those things unlike other people in this race.”

Here in Lincoln Park, just outside Detroit, Santorum hammered Romney — a Michigan native — for opposing the auto industry bailout while supporting the 2008 bank rescue. It’s a charge Santorum made earlier in the campaign during a speech at the Detroit Economic Club, which was met with little resistance from attendees.

“I didn’t pick, well, you know, we’re going to bail out some, but not bail out others. That’s in violation of — I don’t know what principles … if you say, ‘I’m going to bail out one group of folks and not bail out another industry,’” said Santorum, who also opposed the auto bailout.

“My feeling was you’re either for them or you’re against them, but don’t you start picking winners and losers, and that’s what Gov. Romney and others in this campaign have done, and I haven’t. You may not like my position on bailouts, but I’ve been consistent and principled, unlike other people in this race.”

While Santorum broadly attacked President Barack Obama and his administration’s policies, for the most part, his ire was focused on Romney. He hit the former Massachusetts governor over his tax plan released earlier this week. Initially, Santorum said the plan was not dissimilar from his own.